Feeling uninspired

Hello again, friends. I've been getting accustomed to my job and my new digs, and just generally trying to catch up to life. This doesn't mean that I haven't been creating. I've been knitting the crap out of this sweater that I've been working on. And I tried to start some socks for Abby, but that didn't work out. And I've been picking up work on a shawl that I had going...

None of it is very exciting, though. The sweater back was MILES of stockinette. I've got the sleeves going now, and they're not nearly so bad, because they each have a cable. It's just that the shaping is a pain in the butt, for some reason. Primarily because I lose track of what row I'm on.

In an effort to deal with the tedium of miles of stockinette, and more ribbing than I am usually fond of, I have gotten back on the spinning wheel horse.

In an effort to get away from my apparent obsession with green, I pulled out a braid of Merino/Bamboo in a colorway called "Professor Plum"

The singles look nice, right? Then I triple plied it, so the colors would stay consistent.

Very pretty, yes? Unfortunately, it was only 4 oz of fiber, which didn't go very far. So not much motivation to be gained there. I continued knitting the sweater, but wasn't very pleased with it. Then, last night, I pulled out a different braid of merino/bamboo. In a colorway called "Cullen House."

Also very nice, right? I'm about halfway through it. I'll show you the singles later. When I've finished the other half. And maybe some more sleeve. Effing sleeves.

If you have any other ideas for how I might get motivated, please share. I've got most of 2 sleeves left, and the ribbed edging left. And I can't quit on this sweater again.

What's in this bag?

Man, I am a bad blogger. Admittedly, there hasn't been much to post about. But still, I could make more of an effort, right? I'll work on it, I promise. Perhaps when I get better internet, it will be easier to remember to post more often.

As a catch up, let me tell you that I'm officially employed as a full-time engineer. Which means that I've been working on finding more permanent housing. It's nice that I was able to stay with friends this summer, but I'm getting a vibe that they love me, but they'd love me more if they saw me a little less. Which is fine, because I think I could really get behind having my own place. I've found an apartment (I move in on the 30th), and I'm working on furnishing it. I don't think I've ever fully appreciated how much work has to go into equipping the entire house. I've always had roommates to share the burden. And all of the furniture I used to have now belongs to my sister... But it's been fun to pick out all new stuff, and visualize what I might want in my new place.

In knitting news, I've been working on decreasing the number of UFOs and WIPs. I don't have as many as some people I know, but there's certainly some that could use attention.

I finished my second pair of "work" socks. I call them that because I take them to work with me, in case I get some free time. Except I stopped taking these to work, since I offered to take the clapotis off of Caitlin's list.

Which reminds me, I finished the clapotis too. Yay! The colors were nice, and I found out that I wrap my purl stitches a little bit differently than Caitlin does. Which is why my stockinette looks different than it should. Always a worthwhile lesson to learn.

Last, but definitely not least, I finished the Highland Triangle! This is a terrible picture, I'll post a better one when I get it blocked. That might have to wait until after I move into my new place. But trust me, it looks nice. And it's great to have gotten one of my effing shawls off of my to-do list. There's 2 more (turns out), but only one of them is gonna get any attention any time soon.






Things that I'm avoiding? Mariah's chuppah (it's not doing anything bad, I just don't want it to turn into a hate chuppah. I'd hate to jinx their marriage), a lace sweater that I don't have the attention for, a chunky cabled vest which has a similar problem (both patterns have so many charts, I'm gonna need a whole table to keep track of it all), and the aforementioned shawl that is in disgrace.

On the list of things that will be getting attention: I just ripped out the start of a sweater that was going to be too small (points for noticing that before I got to the end?), some mystery fingerless mittens that I'm pretty excited about, except I'm pretty sure I can't take them to work (they're on double points), and some boot socks that my sister has requested (I just need to get her leg measurements... not sure how that's gonna happen, but I'm sure I'll figure it out). Alas, none of these are sparking my need to knit. I think I've just got startitis, but I don't want to indulge too much. Starting the mitts and restarting the sweater should count, right?

Well that's weird.

So, I was going to post a beautiful wrap-up post for the Tour de Fleece. So, I was pulling together all my lovely handspun from the last 3 weeks, and I took a picture.

How is it possible that I didn't notice, while powering my way through tons of fiber, that I didn't actually get out of my color comfort zone? 80% of this nonsense is green. Or has a significant amount of green in it. The only fibers that didn't involve any green at all were the:

A) 8 oz of pink surprise BFL, which I didn't intend to own so much of

B) The 2 oz of yellow Rambouillet that isn't pictured because I gave it to Caitlin because I couldn't stand it.

C) 4 oz of some tasty brown alpaca that was a pleasure to spin, and not nearly as filthy as the white stuff I got at last year's Wool Market. Next year, I'm totally getting more of this stuff.

Anyway, on to the wrap up! I kind of lost interest in spinning for a while, probably because I'd been doing so much of it. I did still make quite a dent in the fiber stash, but I still need to get more done. However, the Ravellenic Games are coming up, and I need to come up with a project/variety of projects to use as a goal for the next fiber-related marathon. In the meantime, I'm working on Mariah's chuppah (it's coming along nicely, although I'm not 100% that I'll use all of the yarn I ordered). And my sister requested some socks. Long socks. I'll have to get on that sometime before it gets cold and she needs to wear boots again. Yay.

That's all the news that's fit to print. If you have any good ideas for Ravellenic goals, let me know. I'm drawing a blank.

Lesson learned

Lesson 1: Endeavor to bear in mind that just because you hardly ever purchase that color of fiber doesn't mean you haven't ever purchased that color of fiber. That's how you end up with surprise stash issues. Yay!

Lesson 2: When in the throes of stash enhancement fervor, endeavor to check the fiber content of the item you are purchasing. Turns out, not all fibers are created equal, and spinning something you don't like is painful. (Turns out I forgot that I don't really like spinning superwash merino). At least the color was nice.

Lesson 3: Remember to only buy colors that you like. Admittedly, some pictures can be misleading. But colorway names can be a good indicator of what the finished product might look like. This started life as a braid of Rambouillet in a colorway called "Harvest Moon." I don't usually spin yellow fiber, I've never spun Rambouillet before, and I was working against the clock. Not a good combination. The singles shown here and the remainder of the 4 oz braid have gone to live with Caitlin because I couldn't face it anymore.

Lesson 3b: I don't like Rambouillet. Now I know. Since I also learned to only purchase fibers that I like (see above), hopefully I won't purchase any more of this particular fiber.






Lesson 4: I always over pack in terms of fibery goodness for a trip of any length. Especially one in which I anticipate a significant amount of downtime, despite knowing: that I have not yet started the homework assignment due over the weekend, that I have 3 doctor appointments in one day, and that I'm a serial over-packer.

Lesson 5: All liquor tastes better from a glass that says "3 sheeps to the wind" on it. 'Nuff said.


Details, you say? Fine. Caitlin drew the lovely illustration based on a knick-knack that Shelby and I encountered while I was visiting her lovely town of Winnemucca. I became enamored with the concept of owning wine glasses with drunk sheepies on them. Turns out that glasswithatwist.com will happily execute any relatively simple drawing on a variety of glassware for you. Most excellent!








I also tried the new wine-and-art fad with my sister this weekend. We painted technicolor hibiscuses! Hibisci? Hibiscus? And remembered that I have a complete dearth of natural artistic talent. Turns out that's not such a big deal, since the proprietors of the shop are trying to make sure people come back, so they take you through the painting process in baby steps. Very simple!

I'd show you a picture but the pictures are all on my phone, and some of my hibiscus attempts (like how I avoided the plural question there?) are a little deranged looking. Like I said, no natural artistic talent. It's a burden I've learned to live with.

The first step...

They say the first step to fixing a problem is admitting that you have one. Well. I think I may have to admit that I have one. 

I went stash diving today. In the fiber stash, so I could have more fiber to spin this evening for the Tour. I came across a variety of exciting items, but grabbed 2 items: some superwash merino, and a braid of BFL I purchased at the Fancy Tiger, in Denver. Just to make sure, I kept rooting around a bit more to look at everything in the stash bin. My eye was caught by a braid that looked similar to the BFL I had already extracted from the bin. It was odd, I though, since it was in a peachy pink color that I'm not usually persuaded to purchase. 

I pulled it out. It was the same brand, but slightly fluffier. 

I checked the band, it was the same fiber. In fact, it was the same colorway, the same fiber, the same brand. And I knew that I hadn't purchased the two braids at the same time. For one thing, they were slightly different in their colors. And for another, I remembered purchasing both of them at different times. From the same store. And I hadn't realized it until today. 

Like I said. I may have a problem. An impulse problem when it comes to stash enhancement. Now that I'm aware of it, I guess that means I can fix it? I hope...

Anyway, enough true confessions. Let's get to the Tour update! I've been spinning a lot. Doing very well on stash busting. 

Last night, I pulled out some mystery fiber that may have been mohair-silk-something or other. It's really pretty, but not very nice to touch. I guess I'll wash it and see what happens then, but I'm not hopeful. I also plied the Dragonfly singles from this weekend. They are lovely, at least! 

Today, after my stash diving adventure, I plied the mystery singles. Again, pretty to look at, not very nice to touch. Then I yanked out one of the BFL braids. Cuz, hey! I have a lot of it, surprisingly. And I'm a little embarrassed about it. So, spun 2 oz of that nonsense. 

Tomorrow, I have the day off. Caitlin and I are going to see a movie, and I'm going to do some homework, and I shall endeavor to take a larger chunk out of the BFL surprise. Should be a productive day! After I sleep in, of course. 

And we're off!

The Tour de Fleece has begun! I still don't have what you might call a "concrete" goal, but I think that I'm going to aim for a major stash reduction, and to spin every day for the length of the tour. We shall see.

The picture above is the remainder of the fluffy green bamboo stuff that I said I needed to do last time. I whipped through that nonsense. Like a powerhouse. It was awesome. I still need to ply it, but that can happen tomorrow. Maybe. I have to do a lot of driving tomorrow. There may not be a lot of time for spinning.

Then I pulled out another braid from this year's Wool Market haul. It's one of the 4 braids that I bought from Bonkers, since I loved the superwash merino that I got last year. This year I didn't get any superwash, but I got a bunch of very colorful in just about every other variety offered. This braid is, apparently, merino and silk. In the Dragonfly colorway. Which turns out to be very appropriate, because the shiny silk gives the fiber kind of an iridescent look. Like dragonfly wings. I can't wait to see what it looks like when it's done.







I spun about 5 ounces of fiber tonight. Pretty impressive, considering all the other stuff I did today. Alone, because everyone nearby abandoned me. Cuz they have lives and stuff. It's rude, really. Ah well, more time for spinning!

On your marks...

You know what tomorrow is? The Prologue for the Tour de France.

You know what that means? I need to come up with a Tour de Fleece goal. Other than "spin a bunch of the stash so you look like less of a hoarder." I mean, that's a good goal, but it would be good to be a bit more specific, right?

I've not been getting much done lately. I spun a few things.

Like the Oatmeal BFL-Tussah Silk from Frabjous Fibers that I purchased at Wool Market. Ohmygod it's luscious. I mean it. The fiber is lovely, the color is lovely, it was a joy to spin. Holy cow. I'm pretty addicted. I wish I'd bought more of the stuff.

Then there's the angora-wool blend that I bought from Woodlake Woolies last year at Wool Market. It's pretty, and soft, and a little bit sparkly. But not all that exciting. Thank goodness there wasn't all that much of it. Now what do I do with it?

More exciting, there is some bamboo something or other. Again from wool market. From Your Daily Fiber (I think). It doesn't have a tag on it. But it's lovely to spin. Like spinning clouds. And it's shiny, and soft, and I lurve it. Good thing, cuz there's a lot of it. I still need to spin 3/4 of a braid. Yeah man.





I have been knitting a little bit too. I got the yarn in for Mariah's chuppah, so I've been working on that. It's nice that the yarn is chunky, and goes quickly. The pattern is easy to figure out, and I think that she and her fiance are really gonna cherish it, so I'm pretty enthused about that. Except that it's gonna get huge and wooly, and it's roasting this summer.

I've been trying to finish my highland triangle shawl, but that's kind of slow going. It's pretty, but there are lots of stitches and the pattern is a little bit boring.

And then, I've been suckered in to knitting my 4th clapotis. That pattern is like a disease. There's a reason we call it "the clap." The worst part? Only 2 of my 4 were knit for me or someone I know. Caitlin's grandma wants one, though, and Caitlin doesn't really want to knit another one. So I volunteered. Cuz I'm a good friend like that.

And amongst all this stuff, I still need TdF goals... I'll think on those. And hopefully let you know tomorrow what I decide. We shall see.